Joseph Makula

Joseph Makula (1929–2006) was a Congolese photographer. He initially served as a military photographer for the Force Publique before being hired as the first Congolese photographer for Congopresse in 1956. After Congopresse closed in 1968, he worked as a freelancer and established his own studio. He died in 2006.

Biography Joseph Makula was born in 1929 in Orientale Province, Belgian Congo. He attended a nursing school in Stanleyville, but enlisted in the Force Publique in Port-Francqui in 1948. The following year he was stationed in Léopoldville, and the editor of the army's newspaper, Sango Ya Biso, tapped him as a photographer for the publication. He was later made a supervisor of a military photographic lab tasked with developing film. He left the army in 1956 and briefly found work at a newspaper, Pourquoi pas l'Avenir.

Later in 1956

Following Congolese independence in 1960, Congopresse's European staff departed, and Makula went to Belgium for a training course in photography. When he returned to the Congo, he trained a new group of Congolese photographers for the agency, including its only woman photographer, Mpate Sulia. In 1968, Congopresse closed down and Mukula became a freelance photographer. He set up his own photo studio, Photo Mak, in Lemba, Kinshasa, in 1981. It operated until 1991. He died in 2006.